Nuclear power plants produce high-level radioactive waste that is currently stockpiled as there is no safe long-term way of dealing with it. Worldwide around 10,000 tonnes of this waste is generated annually. Any solution would have to isolate the waste for some 200,000 years. A proposal to store high-level waste underground at Yucca Mountain (pictured) in Nevada in the US has been abandoned.

Nuclear power plants produce plutonium that can be used to make nuclear weapons. "Of the 60 countries which have built nuclear power or research reactors, about 25 are known to have used their 'peaceful' nuclear facilities for covert weapons research and/or production". An average 1000 MW nuclear power station produces enough plutonium each year for 20 nuclear bombs and safeguards are designed to detect the loss of fissile material rather than prevent it.

Nuclear Incidents and Accidents

Although there have been no major nuclear accidents since Chernobyl in 1986 (pictured), nuclear power plants have suffered a series of minor accidents and mishaps that are not widely reported. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) argues:

It must be borne in mind that a large-scale expansion of nuclear power in the United States or worldwide under existing conditions would be accompanied by an increased risk of catastrophic events—a risk not associated with any of the non-nuclear means for reducing global warming. These catastrophic events include a massive release of radiation due to a power plant meltdown or terrorist attack, or the death of tens of thousands due to the detonation of a nuclear weapon made with materials obtained from a civilian—most likely non-U.S.—nuclear power system.

Accidents and mishaps at nuclear power plants do not have to be catastrophic to release radiation. For example Japanese power plants have a number of incidents each year and also accidents resulting in deaths (see the newsletter of the Citizens Nuclear Information Centre (CNIC) and table below).